Apparatus for providing multiple screens and method of dynamically configuring multiple screens

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for providing multiple screens and a method of dynamically configuring multiple screens are provided. The apparatus for providing multiple screens is capable of providing a plurality of contents on a single physical display device and reconstructing a form or connection relationship among screens existing on a system. The apparatus for providing multiple screens includes an operation module which generates at least one screen for displaying a service and a setting module which senses a change of set of the screen.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Nos. 60/705,491, 60/789,577 and 60/812,090 filed on Aug. 5,2005, Apr. 6, 2006 and Jun. 9, 2006, respectively, in the United StatesPatent and Trademark Office, the disclosures of which are incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate toproviding and dynamically configuring multiple screens, and moreparticularly, to providing a plurality of contents on a single physicaldisplay device and reconstructing a form or connection relationshipamong screens existing on a system.

2. Description of the Related Art

Related art broadcast receivers such as digital televisions (TVs) ordigital set-top boxes provide only one content element on a singlephysical display device or simultaneously display a main screen and asub-screen on a single physical display device.

Even though related art broadcast receivers can simultaneously displayboth the main screen and the sub-screen on the same display screen, theycan only arrange the main screen and the sub-screen in a limited numberof manners. In the case of a content displayed within the main screen,all elements of the content, i.e., video data, audio data, and otherdata, are displayed. On the other hand, in the case of a contentdisplayed within the sub-screen, only some of the elements of thecontent are displayed.

Content sources include a broadcast service such as a satellitebroadcaster, a terrestrial broadcaster, or a cable broadcaster, astorage medium such as digital versatile discs (DVDs), or an externaldevice connected to an input terminal. However, it is quite difficult todisplay contents provided by such various content sources on a displayscreen using the existing broadcast receivers.

In an interactive TV application program environment such as theMultimedia Home Platform (MHP), the Advanced Common Application (ACAP),and the Open Cable Application Platform (OCAP), it is assumed that onlyone screen is output on a physical display device.

In the interactive TV application program environment, for example, aHome Audio/Video Interoperability (HAVi)-based user interface (UI) isadopted. According to the HAVi UI standard, even though no restrictionis imposed on the number of screens displayed on a physical displaydevice, only one screen is generally displayed on a physical displaydevice.

In such an environment, it is difficult to perform operations, such asdecoding, digital signal processing, user interaction processing, etc.with respect to one among multimedia contents displayed on a screenwhile displaying the multimedia contents on independent screens. Inaddition, it is also difficult to dynamically control the life cycles ofapplication programs and the use of resources in the units of thescreens.

Accordingly, there exists a need for a method of displaying a variety ofcontents on a dynamically configured screen.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is provides an apparatus and method fordynamically configure multiple screens which provide a plurality ofcontents on a single physical display device so as to reconstruct a formor connection relationship among screens existing on a system.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided anapparatus for providing multiple screens, apparatus including anoperation module generating at least one screen for displaying aservice; and a setting module sensing a change of set of the screen.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is providedan apparatus for providing multiple screens, the apparatus including anoperation module generating at least one screen for displaying aservice; and a setting module changing coordinates or a size of thescreen.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided an apparatus for providing multiple screens, the apparatusincluding a service processing module generating a logical screen fordisplaying a service and a display screen that the logical screen ismapped; and a setting module changing an order of displaying the logicalscreen on the display screen.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, there isprovided an apparatus for providing multiple screens, the apparatusincluding a service processing module generating a logical screen fordisplaying a service and a display screen that the logical screen ismapped; and a setting module disposing the logical screen on the displayscreen according to a disposing method among one or more disposingmethods.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided an apparatus for providing multiple screens, the apparatusincluding an operation module generating at least one screen fordisplaying a service; and a setting module restricting to perform anapplication included in the service on the screen.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method of providing multiple screens, the method includinggenerating at least one screen for displaying a service; and sensing achange of set of the screen

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method of providing multiple screens, the method includinggenerating at least one screen for displaying a service; and changingcoordinates or a size of the screen.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method of providing multiple screens, the method includinggenerating a logical screen for displaying a service and a displayscreen that the logical screen is mapped; and changing an order ofdisplaying the logical screen on the display screen.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method of providing multiple screens, the method includinggenerating a logical screen for displaying a service and a displayscreen that the logical screen is mapped; and disposing the logicalscreen on the display screen according to a disposing method among oneor more disposing methods.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method of providing multiple screens, the method includinggenerating at least one screen for displaying a service; and restrictingto perform an application included in the service on the screen.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects of the present invention will become moreapparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof withreference to the attached drawings in which:

FIGS. 1A to 1H are diagram illustrating a configuration of a PiP screenaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the relationship between a logicalscreen and a display screen according to an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIGS. 3A to 3E are diagrams illustrating a configuration of a screenincluding a mapper according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating service sources according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 5A and 5B are diagrams illustrating a non-abstract service and anabstract service according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating attribute information and interfaces ofa logical screen and a display screen;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an attribute ‘z-order’ of a logicalscreen according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 8A and 8B are diagrams each illustrating an attribute‘Display_Area’ of a logical screen according to exemplary embodiments ofthe present invention;

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a method of mapping two services to adisplay screen according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an apparatusfor providing multiple screens according to an exemplary embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method of dynamically configuringmultiple screens according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating software architecture for providingmultiple screens according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating the relationships among modulesconstituting an application programming interface (API) layer accordingto an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying a pluralityof services that are displayed on respective corresponding logicalscreens on a display screen by the modules illustrated in FIG. 13according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a state diagram illustrating the operation of the settingmodule according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention;

FIGS. 16A to 16E are views illustrating an example of codes for settingthe screen according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating the process of exchanging theservices to be displayed on the logical screen by the modules shown inFIG. 13 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

Advantages and features of the present invention and methods ofaccomplishing the same may be understood more readily by reference tothe following detailed description of exemplary embodiments and theaccompanying drawings. The present invention may, however, be embodiedin many different forms and should not be construed as being limited tothe exemplary embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these exemplaryembodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough andcomplete and will fully convey the concept of the invention to thoseskilled in the art, and the present invention will only be defined bythe appended claims. Like reference numerals refer to like elementsthroughout the specification.

The present invention is described hereinafter with reference toflowchart illustrations of user interfaces, methods, and computerprogram products according to embodiments of the invention. It will beunderstood that each block of the flowchart illustrations, andcombinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations, can beimplemented by computer program instructions. These computer programinstructions can be provided to a processor of a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions,which are executed via the processor of the computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus, create means for implementingthe functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerusable or computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer usable orcomputer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture includinginstruction means that implement the function specified in the flowchartblock or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that theinstructions that execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

Each block of the flowchart illustrations may represent a module,segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executableinstructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). Itshould also be noted that in some alternative implementations, thefunctions noted in the blocks may occur out of the order. For example,two blocks illustrated in succession may in fact be executedsubstantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed inthe reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved.

For a better understanding of the present invention, the terms used inthis disclosure will now be defined.

The term ‘service’ indicates a group of multimedia contents displayedtogether, i.e., a group of service components.

Service components are elements of a service and include a videocomponent, an audio component, and a data component. A data component isan application in a service.

Further, the applications are classified into an unbound application anda service bound application. Since the unbound application has a highpriority, the resource is smoothly allocated. A monitor applicationcorresponds to a specific unbound application that has the highestpriority.

The service bound application is associated to a transport stream, andallows a lower priority than that of the unbound application. Theservice bound application does not function as a critical system. When acompetition for resources is occurred, the service bound application hasa larger possibility of abandoning the resource allocation than theunbound application. The service bound application includes aconjunction type that operates in conjunction with a stream that isbeing transported and a non-conjunction type that operates dependentlyfrom the stream.

The term ‘service context’ indicates an object which can control theexecuting of a service and includes various resources, devices, andexecution state information needed for providing a service.

The term ‘physical display device’ indicates a physical space whichactually displays the content of a service.

The term ‘display screen’ indicates a screen actually displayed on aphysical display device. An arbitrary service may be directly set in thedisplay screen, and the display screen may be displayed on a physicaldisplay device. Alternatively, at least one logical screen which ismapped to a certain area of the display screen may be displayed on thephysical display device.

The term ‘logical screen’ indicates a space in which an arbitraryservice is displayed. A logical screen is a virtual screen before beingmapped to a display screen and thus is not displayed on a physicaldisplay device.

The logical screen and the display screen may be a combination of abackground still image, a video raster, and a graphic raster. Thegraphic raster may be a combination of text, lines, colors, and imagesor a mixture of video frames.

The term ‘main service’ indicates a service that is selected as a mainservice through a menu displayed on the physical display device or aremote controller by a user or through an API by an application, and thescreen on which the main service is displayed is referred to as a ‘mainscreen’.

The term ‘Picture-in-Picture service’ (PiP service) indicates a servicethat is selected as a sub-service in the main service through a menudisplayed on a physical display device or a remote controller by a uservia an API by an application, and the PiP service may be displayed on apicture-in-picture screen (PiP screen) or a main screen.

The PiP screen includes a screen that occupies a part of another screenas illustrated in FIGS. 1A to 1D and a screen that is simultaneouslydisplayed with another screen without overlapping the other screen asillustrated in FIGS. 1E to 1F. In this case, it is understood that thePiP screen may include a screen that is displayed on an arbitrarylocation or area in the physical display device or overlaps anotherscreen, as illustrated in FIGS. 1G and 1H.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the relationship between a logicalscreen and a display screen according to an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, a service may be displayed using logical screens210, 212, and 214. The logical screens 210, 212, and 214 are mapped todisplay screens 220, 222, and 224 through a mapping block 230.

In detail, the logical screens 210 and 212 are mapped to the displayscreen 220, the logical screens 212 and 214 are mapped to the displayscreen 222, and the logical screens 210, 212, and 214 are mapped to thedisplay screen 224.

In short, at least one logical screen which displays a service is mappedto an arbitrary area of a display screen.

The mapping block 230 is a group of various pieces of information neededfor mapping a logical screen to a display screen. Examples of thevarious pieces of information include coordinate information of apredetermined area on a display screen to which each of a plurality oflogical screens is mapped, identification information of the logicalscreens and the display screen, and information specifying in what orderthe logical screens are displayed on the display screen.

The mapping block 230 can change the size of the logical screen so to beallocated in an arbitrary area of the display screen. That is, themapping block 230 can perform scaling of the logical screen andallocating of the position thereof, and FIGS. 3A to 3E are diagramsillustrating a configuration of the screen including a mapper as themapping block.

Referring to FIG. 3A, the main screen including a combination of abackground still image B, a video raster V, and a graphic raster G ismapped to the entire display screen by a mapper with a normal size. ThePiP screen including only video components is mapped to the entiredisplay screen by the mapper with a reduced size. In this case, themapped PiP screen is displayed on the main screen, which is determineddepending on a Z value. The reference character Z refers to z-ordervalue which will be described later. An overlay screen may be combinedwith the display screen. The overlay screen is a specific screendisposed at the outmost side, and may be used when providing a captionfunction. The PiP screen may have only a video component as illustratedin FIG. 3A, or may have a combination of the background still image B,the video raster V, and the graphic raster G as illustrated in FIG. 3B.

Referring to FIG. 3C, the main screen including the combination of thebackground still image B, the video raster V, and the graphic raster Gis mapped to the entire display screen by the mapper with a normal size.Two PiP screens #1 and #2 having only video component is mapped to anarbitrary area of the display screen by the mapper with a reduced size.In this case, the mapped PiP screen is disposed on the main screen andthe Z value can be constantly maintained. Further, the overlay screenmay be combined with the display screen. The configuration of the screenmay have a plurality of PiP screens including only video components asillustrated in FIG. 3C or a plurality of PiP screens including acombination of the background still image B, the video raster V, and thegraphic raster G as illustrated in FIG. 3D.

Picture-outside-Picture (POP) screens are illustrated in FIG. 3E. It canbe understood that the conventional PiP screen is displayed inside themain screen and the POP screen is displayed outside the main screen.Referring to FIG. 3E, the plurality of PiP screens #1 and #2 including acombination of the background still image B, the video raster V, and thegraphic raster G are mapped to arbitrary areas of the display screen bythe mapper with a reduced size. In this case, the Z value of the mappedPOP screens #1 and #2 may be constantly maintained. Further, the overlayscreen may be combined with the display screen.

The mapping block 230 may be realized by interfaces or functionsprepared by various computer program languages to be executed and createor change the relationship between the logical screen and the displayscreen by using the above information as parameters.

Also, the mapping block 230 may be realized by a hardware which has amapping function between a logical screen and a display screen.

Further, services provided by various service sources may be displayedon a display screen, and the display screen may be displayed on aphysical display device, as illustrated in FIG. 4.

There are service sources which provide broadcast services such as aterrestrial broadcaster 320 and a cable broadcaster 330, service sourceswhich provide services stored in a storage medium such as a personalvideo recorder (PVR) 340, and service sources (not illustrated in FIG.4) which provide services via a wired network or a wireless network.

A broadcast receiver 310 receives services from the service sources andgenerates logical screens displaying each of the a services.

Then, an arbitrary service is directly set on the display screen to bedisplayed on a physical display device using a predefined method or amethod set by a user or an application. Otherwise, at least one logicalscreen that is mapped to an arbitrary area on the display screen isdisplayed on a physical display device 350. In short, services providedby the terrestrial broadcaster 320, the cable broadcaster 330, and thePVR are displayed on the physical display device 350.

The terrestrial broadcaster 320, the cable broadcaster 330, and the PVR340 are illustrated in FIG. 4 as being service sources, but the presentinvention is not limited to it. Any type of multimedia content sourcewhich provides multimedia contents that can be displayed together can bea service source according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention.

Services according to an exemplary embodiment of the present inventioncan be classified into abstract services and non-abstract services, asillustrated in FIGS. 5A and 5B.

The abstract services are not services provided by broadcast signalstransmitted in real time but services independent of broadcast channels.The abstract services include only data components, i.e., applications,without video components and audio components. Examples of the abstractservices include services having unbound applications based on the OCAPstandard.

The non-abstract services are understood as services other than abstractservices.

According to the current exemplary embodiment of the present invention,both abstract services and non-abstract services have independency. Forexample, abstract services may be directly set on the physical displaydevice not through logical screens and non-abstract services may bedisplayed on the logical screens. Then, the logical screens may bemapped to the display screen in which the abstract services are set.Thereafter, the display screen may be output through the physicaldisplay device. By doing so, the abstract services can be displayed onthe display screen independently of the non-abstract services. Inaddition, the abstract services and non-abstract services may be mappedto different logical screens. Thereafter, the logical screens may bemapped to a single display screen. In other words, the abstract servicescan be displayed on the display screen independently of non-abstractservices.

According to the current exemplary embodiment of the present invention,the logical screen and the display screen may be categorized as beingdifferent objects. Alternatively, a screen may serve as a logic screenor a display screen according to attribute information of one screenobject.

In detail, whether a screen object is a logical screen or a displayscreen depends on the ‘type’ information among screen object attributes.

The screen object attributes includes ‘Type’, ‘z-Order’, ‘Display_Area’,‘Visibility’, ‘Associated_Display_Screen’,‘Associated_Service_Contexts’, and ‘OutputPort’.

FIG. 6 illustrates attribute information of a screen object andinterfaces for processing the attributes of the screen.

An attribute ‘Type’ 510 is for determining a screen type—a logicalscreen or a display screen.

An attribute ‘z-Order’ 520 is for determining in what order a pluralityof logical screens are arranged along the z-axis. FIG. 7 illustrates aconfiguration of logical screens on a physical display device for acombination of the values of attributes ‘z-Order’ of the logicalscreens.

Referring to FIG. 7, first and second logical screens 620 and 630 arerespectively mapped to predetermined areas of a display screen 610. Indetail, the first logical screen 620 is displayed on the display screen610, and the second logical screen 630 is displayed on the displayscreen partially overlapping the first logical screen 620. In otherwords, the display screen 610, the first logical screen 620, and thesecond logical screen 630 are sequentially arranged in the direction ofthe z-axis. In this case, an attribute ‘z-Order’ of the first logicalscreen 620 may be set to a value of 1, and an attribute ‘z-Order’ of thesecond logical screen 630 may be set to a value of 2. The attributes‘z-Order’ of the first and second logical screens 620 and 630 may be setto any numbers or characters as long as they can represent a certainorder in which the first and second logical screens 620 and 630 are tobe arranged along the z-axis.

An attribute ‘Display_Area’ 530 is information regarding a displayscreen area of a logical screen, as to be illustrated in FIGS. 8A and8B.

FIG. 8A illustrates that a logical screen 710 is mapped to an entirearea of the display screen 720, and FIG. 8B illustrates that a logicalscreen 730 is mapped to a partial area of the display screen 740.

The attribute ‘Display_Area’ may include information specifying thetwo-dimensional coordinates of a predetermined portion of a displayscreen to which the logical screen is to be mapped or may includeinformation specifying a predetermined location on the display screenand an offset value indicating how much the logical screen deviates fromthe predetermined location on the display screen.

An attribute ‘Visibility’ 540 determines whether a logical screen is tobe visibly or invisibly displayed on a display screen. It is possible tomake a logical screen appear on or disappear from a display screen byaltering the value of the attribute ‘Visibility’ 530.

An attribute ‘Associated_Display_Screen’ 550 is information regardingdisplay screens associated with a logical screen. A logical screen whichis not associated with any display screens may not be displayed on aphysical display device nor be transmitted to external output devices.

An attribute ‘Associated_Service_Contexts’ 560 is information regardingservice contexts connected to a logical screen or a display screen.Services set in such service contexts may be displayed on a logicalscreen or a display screen.

An attribute ‘OutputPort’ 570 is information regarding devices by whicha display screen is to be output, and such devices include displayscreens, wired/wireless communication media, and various storage media.

Interfaces for identifying or altering the values of the attributesillustrated in FIG. 6 may be provided. Referring to FIG. 6, theinterfaces may include an interface ‘SET’ for setting attribute valuesor connecting a logical screen to a display screen, an interface ‘ADD’for adding attribute values or connecting a logical screen to a service,an interface ‘GET’ for identifying attribute values, and an interface‘REMOVE’ for deleting attribute values. These interfaces may includeprocesses, functions, procedures, or methods that perform theirfunctions, respectively.

For example, a method ‘getDisplayScreen(void)’ returns a display screenassociated with the current screen. In detail, if the current screen isa logical screen, the method ‘getDisplayScreen(void)’ returns theassociated display screen. If the current screen is display screen, themethod ‘getDisplayScreen(void)’ returns reference information regardingthe current screen. Further, if the current screen is a logical screen,but there is no associated screen, the method ‘getDisplayScreen(void)’returns a value of ‘NULL’.

According to another example, a method ‘public voidsetDisplayArea(HScreenRectangle rect) throws SecurityException,IllegalStateException’ provides a function for mapping the currentlogical screen to a predetermined area of the associated display screen.An instance that is provided as a parameter is of a class‘HScreenRectangle’ of a package ‘org.havi.ui’, and has two-dimensionalposition information. The execution of the methods ‘SecurityException’and ‘IllegalStateException’ may be conducted as an exceptional operationfor the method ‘setOutputScreen(HScreen screen)’. The method‘IllegalStateException’ may be executed when the current screen is alogical screen or when a portion of a display screen associated with acurrent logical screen cannot change due to the characteristics of ahost platform.

According to still another example, a method ‘getOutputArea(void)’returns regional information of a current screen as HScreenRectangleinformation. If the current screen corresponds to a display screen, themethod ‘getOutputArea(void)’ returns HScreenRectangle information havingthe same value as HScreenRectangle (0,0,1,1). If the current screen is alogical screen, the method ‘getOutputArea(void)’ returns informationregarding an area on a display screen occupied by the current screen. Ifthe current screen is a logical screen but is not associated with anydisplay screen, the method ‘getOutputArea(void)’ returns a value ‘NULL’.

Certain terms are used throughout the following description to refer toparticular interfaces. However, one skilled in the art will appreciatethat a particular function is named simply to indicate itsfunctionality. This detailed description of the exemplary embodimentsdoes not intend to distinguish between functions that differ in name butnot function.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a process that two services are set ontwo logical screens to be mapped to a single display screen.

Referring to FIG. 9, a first service includes all the three servicecomponents, i.e., video, audio, and data components, and a secondservice includes only video and audio components. However, the presentinvention does not impose any restrictions on service components, andthe first and second services illustrated in FIG. 9 are exemplary.

As illustrated in FIG. 9, the first and second services are displayed ona physical display device in almost the same manner as in the relatedart. According to the current exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention, it is possible to display a plurality of services on aphysical display device independently of one another without imposingany restrictions on the number of services that can be displayed on asingle display screen.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an apparatus for providing multiplescreens according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 10, an apparatus 900 for providing multiple screensincludes a digital signal processing module 940, an operation module970, a user/application interface module 950, and a setting module 960.

Also, the apparatus 900 includes a broadcast signal reception module910, a storage medium 920 a, and an external input module 930 as servicesources, and includes a physical display device 970, a storage medium980, a storage medium 920 b, and an external output module 990 asservice output media.

The term ‘module’, as used herein, means, but is not limited to, asoftware or hardware component, such as a Field Programmable Gate Array(FPGA) or an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), whichperforms certain tasks. A module may advantageously be configured toreside on the addressable storage medium and configured to execute onone or more processors. Thus, a module may include, by way of example,components, such as software components, object-oriented softwarecomponents, class components and task components, processes, functions,attributes, procedures, subroutines, segments of program code, drivers,firmware, microcode, circuitry, data, databases, data structures,tables, arrays, and variables. The functionality provided for in thecomponents and modules may be combined into fewer components and modulesor further separated into additional components and modules.

The digital signal processing module 940 receives various information ofa service such as a multimedia content, e.g., video information, audioinformation, or data information, from the broadcast signal receptionmodule 910, the storage medium 920 a, or the external input module 930.

The broadcast signal reception module 910 receives a satellite,terrestrial, or cable broadcast signal and transmits the receivedbroadcast signal, the storage medium 920 a stores video information,audio information, or data information of a service, and the externalinput module 930 receives video information, audio information, or datainformation of a service from an external device such as a networkinterface module connected to a network.

The digital signal processing module 940 restores a plurality ofservices using received service components. The restored servicesinclude abstract or non-abstract services.

Here, the phrase ‘a plurality of services’ refers to two or moreservices transmitted by the broadcast signal reception module 910 or twoor more services respectively transmitted by the broadcast signalreception module 910 and the storage medium 920 a.

The digital signal processing module 940 may restore services accordingto selection by a user or an application with the aid of theuser/application interface module 950. In this case, the user or theapplication may select the connection between an arbitrary service and ascreen.

The operation module 970 displays a service restored by the digitalsignal processing module 940 and then maps a logical screen to a displayscreen or directly the service on the display screen. For this purpose,the operation module 940 may include a service processing module 972 oran output module 974.

The service processing module 972 generates one or more logical screensto display the services restored by the digital signal processing module940.

The output module 974 maps a plurality of logical screens generated bythe service processing module 972 to the display screen. The mapping ofthe logical screens to the display screen may be conducted using apredefined method or a method set by the user with the aid of theuser/application interface module 950.

A service restored by the digital signal processing module 940 may notbe processed by the service processing module 972. Instead, a servicerestored by the digital signal processing module 972 may be directlymapped to a certain portion of a display screen generated by the outputmodule 974.

A display screen provided by the output module 974 may be displayed onthe physical display device 980 or may be stored in the storage medium920 b. Examples of the storage medium 920 b include computer readablefloppy discs, hard discs, CD-ROM. DVD, DVD-ROM, BD (Blu-ray Disc), andsemiconductor memories.

Also, a display screen provided by the output module 974 may betransmitted to an external device connected to a network via theexternal output module 990.

For this, the output module 974 may include a plurality of output portsvia which a display screen can be provided. In this case, a displayscreen can be provided via an output port set in advance as a default oran output port chosen by the user with the aid of the user/applicationinterface module 950.

The setting module 960 sets forms of the screens existing on the systemand connection relationship thereof. Here, the term ‘set’ means toreconstruct the forms of the generated display screens and theconnection relationship thereof. In order to set the forms and theconnection relationship, the setting module 960 can sense a change ofthe set of the screen.

Here, the screen includes a logical screen on which the service isdisplayed and a display screen that is mapped with the logical screen.The change of the set includes any one of a change of a default screenon which the application is performed, a change of contexts of a serviceconnected to the screen, a change of the display screen, a change ofcoordinates of a region where the logical screen is mapped in a regionof the display screen, a change of a video port of the screen, a changeof visibility of the screen, or a change of an order of displaying thelogical screen.

The setting module 960 performs sets to change the coordinates or thesize of the screen (hereinafter, referred to as ‘first set’), to changethe order of displaying the logical screen on the display screen(hereinafter, referred to as ‘second set’), to change the method ofdisposing the screen (hereinafter, referred to as ‘third set’), and torestrict the execution of the application on the screen (hereinafter,referred to as ‘fourth set’).

When the first set is performed, the setting module 960 can change thecoordinates of the region where the logical screen is mapped among thedisplay screen region and the size of the logical screen.

When the third set is performed, the setting module 960 can dispose thelogical screen on the display screen region according to at least onedisposing method.

The disposing methods include: a first disposing method of displayingthe service on the display screen; a second disposing method in whichthe display screen according to the first disposing method exists withat least one overlapped screen; a third disposing method in which thescreen on which the service is displayed corresponds to a logical screenthat is mapped with overall regions of the display screen, the screen onwhich the service is displayed corresponds to at least onenon-overlapped logical screen mapped with the display screen, and thescreen on which the service is displayed does not correspond to theoverlapped screen; a fourth method in which the screen according to thethird method exist with at least one overlapped screen; a fifth methodin which the screen on which the service is displayed corresponds to atleast two non-overlapped logical screens mapped with the overall regionof the display screen but does not correspond to the overlapped screen;a sixth method in which the screen according to the fifth method existswith at least one overlapped screen; and a seventh method in which thescreen on which the service is displayed does not included in any one ofthe above-described methods.

The setting module 960 can dispose the screen with reference to a rightrange of applications included in the service. That is, only when theright for changing the disposing method is given to the application, thesetting module 960 can change the screen disposing method. The right canbe given to the application by a service provider who supplies thecorresponding service.

When the fourth set is performed, the setting module 960 can ignoresignals included in the service. That is, even though a signalindicating that the application may be performed on the screen isincluded in the service, the setting module 960 can restrict theexecution of the application on the screen.

On the other hand, the setting module 960 is performed according to anapplication provided from the service provider or a user controlcommand.

The user or the application can choose one of a plurality of services orrestore desired services using the user/application interface module950. Also, the user can select one of a plurality of display screensusing the user/application interface module 950. In order to perform theselection, the user/application interface module 950 can user thesetting module 960.

Since the modules illustrated in FIG. 10 are divided according to theirfunctions, it is possible to be connected to the other modules.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method of dynamically configuringmultiple screens according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention.

In general, video information, audio information, and data informationconstituting a multimedia content are transmitted in a predeterminedformat, for example, an MPEG stream format. In operation S1010, anapparatus for providing a service such as a multimedia content servicereceives video information, audio information, and data information andrestores a service based on the video information, the audioinformation, and the data information. Here, the service restored inoperation S1010 may be selected or previously determined by a user or anapplication. The user may use a menu displayed on the display device ora remote controller to select the connections between an arbitraryscreen and a screen. The application may select the connections using anAPI.

Further, data information includes application information regardingapplication for a service, and these application information includessignal information indicating whether the application can be executed ona PiP screen. Examples of the application information include amapplication information table (AIT) based on the MHP standard and anextended application information table (XAIT) based on the OCAPstandard. The signal information may be added to the applicationinformation.

Thereafter, in operation S1020, the restored service is set such that itcan be displayed on a logical screen. In operation S1030, the logicalscreen is mapped to a display screen. In operation S1040, the displayscreen is provided to the user using a display screen, a storage medium,or a network.

As described above, in operation S1050, the setting module 960 sets thedisplayed screen when the logical screen and the display screen aregenerated, when the logical screen is mapped with the display screen, orwhen the display screen is displayed. The setting performed by thesetting module 960 includes the above-described first set to fourth setand can be performed according to a user control command input throughthe user/application interface module 950 and a control command of theapplication that manages the operation of the setting module 960. Sincethe setting has been described in FIG. 10, the description thereof willbe omitted.

The restored service is illustrated in FIG. 11 as being displayed on aphysical display device via a logical screen. However, the restoredservice may be directly displayed on a physical display device withoutpassing through the logical screen.

When the user selects the PiP service, the PiP service is realized intwo modes. In the first mode, only video component for PiP serviceselected on the main screen is provided without creating a separatelogical screen for PiP service, that is, PiP screen. In the second mode,a separate logical screen for PiP service is created to provide the PiPservice selected on the created PiP screen.

FIG. 11 illustrates a method of mapping only one service to a displayscreen for simplicity. However, a plurality of services may be mapped toa display screen with or without passing through a plurality of logicalscreens.

When a display screen is provided to the user in this manner, the usercan perform a plurality of services.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating software architecture for providingmultiple screens according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention.

Referring to FIG. 12, software architecture 1100 includes a devicedriver layer 1110, an API layer 1120, and an application layer 1130.

The device driver layer 1110 receives service components from variousmultimedia content sources and decodes the received service components.Examples of the received service components include video information,audio information, and data information.

The API layer 1120 generates a logical screen and a display screen andmaps a service, the logical screen, and the display screen to oneanother.

The application layer 1130 provides a user interface so that a user candynamically configure a logical screen which displays a service ortransmits a user command to the API layer 1120 so that the API layer1120 can execute the user command.

In order to perform the above operations, the application layer 1130 canoperate through a currently transferred application or a previouslystored application and the screen retrieval operation can be performedby the application layer 1130.

The user enables the device driver layer 1110 with the aid of theapplication layer 1130 to provide a display screen via a physicaldisplay device or to store the display screen in a storage medium 920 b.In addition, the user can enable the device driver layer 1110 totransmit a display screen to an external device via a network.

For this, the device driver layer 1110 may include a plurality of outputports which can provide a display screen. Otherwise, API layer 1120 mayinclude the plurality of output ports.

In order to dynamically configure a plurality of logical screens on adisplay screen, the API layer 1120 may include a plurality of softwaremodules, e.g., a multiscreen manager module ‘MultiScreenManager’ 1210, amultiscreen context module ‘MultiScreenContext’ 1230, a multiscreencontext listener module ‘MultiScreenContextListener’ 1250, and amultiscreen context event module ‘MultiScreenContextEvent’ 1240, asillustrated in FIG. 13.

The multiscreen manager module 1210 manages the multiscreen contextmodule 1230, retrieves for a desired screen, displays informationspecifying what devices are shared by screens, registers the multiscreencontext listener module 1250, or cancels the registration of the screencontext listener module 1250.

The multiscreen context module 1230 is an interface object associatedwith a screen object 1220 and determines whether the screen object 1220is to become a logical screen or a display screen according to aninterface operation performed by the multiscreen context module 1230.Various attributes such as the attributes 510 through 570 illustrated inFIG. 6 may be set in the multiscreen context module 1230. Themultiscreen context module 1230 can provide the functions ‘SET’, ‘ADD’,‘GET’, and ‘REMOVE’ described above with reference to FIG. 6.

When attribute information of the screen object 1220 is altered by themultiscreen context module 1230, the multiscreen context event module1240 serves as an event class announcing that the attribute informationof the screen object 1220 has been changed, and the multiscreen contextlistener module 1250 serves as a listener interface object which can berealized in a predetermined application class which attempts to receivean event prompted by the multiscreen context event module 1240.

An application 1260 is a module which is driven on the application layer1130. The application 1260 allows the user to choose a desired serviceand to freely arrange a plurality of logical screens on a displayscreen.

In detail, the application 1260 transmits various commands which allowthe user to dynamically configure and manage logical screens to themultiscreen manager module 1210, and the multiscreen manager module 1210controls operations corresponding to the various commands to be executedthrough the multiscreen context module 1230.

The multiscreen context module 1230 is associated with the screen object1220 and manages the attribute information of the screen object 1220illustrated in FIG. 6. In order to manage the attribute information ofthe screen object 1220, the multiscreen context module 1230 may includea variety of functions or methods.

The multiscreen manager module 1210 may receive service componentsprovided by various service sources from the device driver layer 1110and perform operations to display the received service components on alogical screen or a display screen.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying a pluralityof services displayed on respective corresponding logical screens by themodules illustrated in FIG. 13 on a display screen according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 14, in operation S1310, the multiscreen manager module1210 produces a display screen and a number of logical screenscorresponding to the number of services to be performed.

In operation S1320, the multiscreen manager module 1210 connects thelogical screens to respective corresponding services received from thedevice driver layer 1110. The multiscreen manager module 1210 may call amethod ‘addServiceContext’ for each of the logical screens by settingservice context objects of the received services as parameters for thelogical screens services. The method ‘addServiceContext’ connects alogical screen to a service and may be provided by the multiscreencontext module 1230.

In operation S1330, once the logical screens are connected to therespective services, the multiscreen manager module 1210 connects thelogical screens to the display screen. At this time, the multiscreenmanager module 1210 may call a method ‘setDisplayScreen’ for each of thelogical screens by setting a display screen object to which the logicalscreens are connected as a parameter. The method ‘setDisplayScreen’connects a logical screen to a display screen and may be provided by themultiscreen context module 1230.

A method ‘setDisplayScreen’ may be set to ‘public void setDisplayScreen(HScreen screen) throws SecurityException, Illegal StateException’, andthis method allows an instance ‘HScreen’ that is provided as a parameterto be associated with the current logical screen. In this case, theinstance ‘HScreen’ is preferably a display screen.

A parameter of the method ‘setDisplayScreen(HScreen screen)’ may includea value of ‘NULL’. In this case, when the method‘setDisplayScreen(HScreen screen)’ is executed without exceptionhandling, the current logical screen is no longer associated with thedisplay screen.

The execution of the methods ‘SecurityException’ and‘IllegalStateException’ may be conducted as an exceptional operation forthe method ‘setDisplayScreen(HScreen screen)’.

The method ‘IllegalStateException’ may be executed when a current screenis a logical screen or when a portion of a display screen associatedwith a current logical screen cannot change due to the characteristicsof a host platform.

In operation S1340, areas on the display screen to which the logicalscreens are to be respectively mapped are determined. At this time, apredetermined method provided by the multiscreen context module 1230 canbe called to determine an area on the display screen where the logicalscreens are to be displayed.

FIG. 15 is a state diagram illustrating the operation of the settingmodule 960 according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention. Thesetting module 960 can perform the first to fourth set operations 1510to 1540.

In order to perform the above-described set operations, the settingmodule 960 can sense the change of the set of the screen.

In order to sense the change of the set, the setting module 960 cansense a notified event by using a method ‘notify’. The method ‘notify’is called when a set of ‘HScreen’ or ‘MultiScreenContext’ of theapplication is changed and includes a parameter‘MultiScreenContextEvent’. Therefore, the application should register alistener in order to sense the event of the method ‘notify’.

In order to register or terminate the listener, the setting module 960can call a method ‘addScreenContextListener’ and a method‘removeScreenContextListener’. The method ‘addScreenContextListener’ andthe method ‘removeScreenContextListener’ are used to register orterminate the listener and include an instance‘MultiScreenContextListener’ as a parameter.

The parameter ‘MultiScreenContextEvent’ of the method ‘notify’ is aclass that inherits ‘java.util.EventObject’ and used to provide thekinds of change as follows. That is, a change of basic HScreen of theapplication, a change of connected service contexts, a change ofconnected output HScreen, a change of a designated region in theconnected output HScreen, a change of connected video output portVideoOutputPorts, a change of visibility of the screen, and a change ofz-order of the screen.

In order to sense the above-described changes, a method ‘getId’ can beused. The method ‘getId’ had a integer data type and returns identifiersuch as SCREEN_CHANGED, SCREEN_CONTEXT_CHANGED,SCREEN_DISPLAY_AREA_CHANGED, SCREEN_OUTPUT_PORT_CHANGED,SCREEN_DISPLAY_SCREEN-CHANGED, SCREEN_VISIBILITY_CHANGED, andSCREEN_Z_ORDER_CHANGED.

FIG. 16A is a view illustrating an example of codes for sensing thechange of the screen set. In FIG. 16A shows that a class‘AContextListener’ that receives the change of the set is defined, aninstance of the defined class is generated, the instance is registeredas a listener, and the listener is terminated.

In order to perform the first set operation 1510, the setting module 960can call a method ‘setDisplayArea’. The method ‘setDisplayArea’ is usedto change the coordinates or the size of the screen and can be providedby a class ‘MultiScreenConfigurableContext’.

The method ‘setDisplayArea’ can be represented as a form of ‘voidsetDisplayArea (org.havi.ui.HScreenRectangle rect) throwsjava.lang.SecurityException, java.lang.IllegalStateException’ and alogical HScreen is connected to a region of the output HScreen. Aparameter ‘rect’ means an instance ‘HScreenRectangle’ that determinesthe region of the output HScreen corresponding to a region obtained bythe logical HScreen.

Further, when a right is not given, an exception‘java.lang.SecurityException’ can be performed. In addition, when a formof the HSceen does not correspond to ‘SCREEN_TYPE_LOGICAL’, when theregion of the output HScreen connected to the logical HScreen can not bechanged, or when a system use permanently use a predetermined region ofthe connected output HScreen, the exception‘java.lang.IllegalStateException’ can be performed.

FIG. 16B is a view illustrating an example of codes for changing thecoordinates or the size of the screen and the code is used when changingthe coordinates or the size of the screen. That is, the coordinates andthe size of the screen are changed by applying a method ‘setDisplayArea’of an instance ‘configurableScreen’ of the given class‘MultiScreenConfigurableContext’.

In order to perform the second set operation 1520, the setting module960 can call a method ‘setZOrder’. The method ‘setZOrder’ is used tochange the z-order of the logical screen, and can be provided from aclass ‘MultiScreenConfigurableContext’. The method ‘setZOrder’ can berepresent by ‘void setZOrder(int order) throwsjava.lang.SecurityException, java.lang.IllegalStateException’ and thez-order of the corresponding logical HScreen among the logical HScreenof the same output HScreen The parameter ‘order’ is a positive integervalue and means the z-order of the corresponding logical HScreen.

Further, when the right is not given, the exception‘java.lang.SecurityException’ can be performed. The exception‘java.lang.IllegalStateException’ can be performed when the form of theHSceen does not correspond to ‘SCREEN_TYPE_LOGICAL’, when the z-order ofthe corresponding logical HScreen can not be changed, or when the systempermanently use the predetermined z-order with respect to thecorresponding logical HScreen.

FIG. 16C is a view illustrating an example of codes for changingz-order. That is, in FIG. 16C, z-order of the corresponding logicalHScreen is changed to 3 by applying a method ‘setZOrder’ of an instance‘configurableScreen’ of the given class‘MultiScreenConfigurableContext’.

In order to perform the third set operation 1530, the setting module 960can call a method ‘getScreenConfigurations’ a method‘getScreenConfiguration’, and a method ‘setScreenConfiguration’.

The method ‘getScreenConfigurations’ has a returning data type‘MultiScreenConfiguration[ ]’ and is used when extracting a screendisposing method provided from a multiple screen providing device 900.

The method ‘getScreenConfiguration’ has a data type‘MultiScreenConfiguration’ and used when extracting a screen disposingmethod of a currently activated screen.

When a right is not given to the method ‘getScreenConfigurations’ andthe method ‘getScreenConfiguration’, the exception‘java.lang.SecurityException’ can be performed.

The method ‘setScreenConfiguration’ is used when activating a selectedscreen disposing method.

The method ‘setScreenConfiguration’ can be represented by a form of‘public void setScreenConfiguration(MultiScreenConfigurationconfiguration) throws java.lang.SecurityException,java.lang.IllegalArgumentException, java.lang.IllegalStateException’. Aparameter ‘configuration’ means an instance of the‘MultiScreenConfiguration’ that indicates a screen disposing method tobe activated

When the right is not given in the method ‘setScreenConfiguration’, theexception ‘java.lang.SecurityException’ may be performed.

The method ‘getScreenConfigurations’, the method‘getScreenConfiguration’, and the method ‘setScreenConfiguration’ can beprovided by the class ‘MultiScreenConfiguration’. A screen disposingmethod provided by the class ‘MultiScreenConfiguration includes any oneof a form of a single screen that a screen on which an application isperformed corresponds to a display screen; a form of overlapped screensthat a single screen exists with at least one overlapped screen; a formof a PiP screen that a screen on which an application is performedcorresponds to a logical screen mapped to overall region of the displayscreen, corresponds to at least one non-overlapped logical screen thatis mapped to the display screen, and does not correspond to theoverlapped screen; a form of overlapped PiP screen that the PiP screenexist with at least one overlapped screen; a form of PoP screen that ascreen on which an application is performed corresponds to at least twonon-overlapped logical screen combinations mapped to the overall regionof the display screen but does not correspond to the overlapped screen;a form of overlapped PoP screen that the PoP screen exists with at leastone overlapped screen; and a form that is not included in any one of theabove-described forms.

Further, in order to check a detailed set form of the correspondingscreen, a search module can call a method ‘getScreenConfigurationType’.Here, the method ‘getScreenConfigurationType’ is used to return aset-form of the currently activated screen and can be provided by amodule ‘MultiScreenConfiguration’

For example, the method ‘getScreenConfigurationType’ can be representedby a form of ‘int getScreenConfigurationType( )

{return SCREEN_CONFIGURATION_NON_PIP,

SCREEN_CONFIGURATION_NON_PIP_WITH_OVERLAY,

SCREEN_CONFIGURATION_PIP,

SCREEN_CONFIGURATION_PIP_WITH_OVERLAY,

SCREEN_CONFIGURATION_POP,

SCREEN_CONFIGURATION_POP_WITH_OVERLAY,

SCREEN_CONFIGURATION_GENERAL}’. The method ‘getScreenConfigurationType’returns the currently activated screen disposing method in the form ofinteger data type. Here, the above-described set form corresponds to thesingle screen, overlapped screen, PiP screen, overlapped PiP screen, PoPscreen, overlapped PoP screen, and the general screen.

FIG. 16D is a view illustrating an example of codes for changing ascreen on which the service is displayed. After checking whether theform of the currently activated screen is PiP or PoP, the set form ischanged on the basis of the check result.

In addition, in order to perform the third set operation 1530, thesetting module 960 can call a method ‘getScreens’.

The method ‘getscreens’ is used to return a set of accessible screensand has a data type of the class ‘HScreen’ of a package ‘org.havi.ui.That is, the method ‘getScreens’ returns a set of accessible instance‘HScreen’. The set of the instance ‘HScreen’ may include an instance‘HScreen’ returned by a method ‘org.havi.ui.HScreen.getDefaultHScreen’and the instance ‘HScreen’ returned by the method‘org.havi.ui.HScreen.getHScreens’.

As described above, the instance ‘HScreen’ to be returned includes allkinds of screen instances that can access the called application. Whenthe application is independently called by a device based on the OCAPstandard, the set of the instance ‘HScreen’ may include all kind ofscreen instances capable of accessing devices based on the OCAPstandard.

FIG. 16E is a view illustrating an example of codes for changing thescreen disposing method. FIG. 16E shows that the screen is disposed by amethod selected by the application among the predetermined PoP screendisposing method.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating the process of exchanging theservices to be displayed on the logical screen by the modules shown inFIG. 13.

In operation S1410, the multiscreen manager module 1210 temporarilyterminates a service to be exchanged between two logical screens.

Thereafter, in operation S1420, information regarding the service isexchanged between the two logical screens. At this time, a method‘removeServiceContext’ and a method ‘addServiceContext’ are called foreach of the two logical screens, thereby exchanging service contexts setin the two logical screens between the two logical screens. The method‘removeContext’ removes a service context connected to a logical screen,and the method ‘addServiceContext’ adds a new service context to alogical screen. The methods ‘removeServiceContext’ and‘addServiceContext’ may be provided by the multiscreen context module1230. According to the current exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention, service information regarding a service connected to logicalservices is exchanged between the logical services, thereby obtainingthe effect of exchanging a main screen and a sub-screen. In addition,according to the current exemplary embodiment of the present invention,even when three or more services are performed on a display screen, theycan be exchanged between an arbitrary number of logical screens.

In operation S1430, occurrence of an event in which the connectionbetween the service and the two logical screens has been changed isgenerated. Thereafter, in operation S1440, the multiscreen context eventmodule 1240 transmits the event to the multiscreen context listenermodule 1250, and a service newly connected to the two logical screensbegins to be performed.

According to the present invention, it is possible for a user toreconstruct a form or connection relationship of screens existing on asystem by dynamically configuring the multiple screens that provides aplurality of contents on a single physical display device

While the present invention has been particularly illustrated anddescribed with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will beunderstood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes inform and details may be made therein without departing from the spiritand scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims.Therefore, it is to be understood that the above-described exemplaryembodiments have been provided only in a descriptive sense and will notbe construed as placing any limitation on the scope of the invention.

1. An apparatus for providing multiple screens, the apparatuscomprising: a digital signal processing module which receives at leastone of a video component, an audio component and a data componentregarding data broadcasting services, and restores a plurality ofservices based on the at least one of the video component, the audiocomponent and the data component; an operation module which generatesthe multiple screens including a display screen and a plurality oflogical screens, for displaying the restored service, associates therestored services with the plurality of logical screens and associatesthe plurality of logical screens with the display screen; and a settingmodule which senses a change of set of attribute information of eachscreen based on association of the restored services and the multiplescreens, and provides an event announcing which attribute information ofeach screen has been changed, wherein each of the plurality of logicalscreens and the display screen comprises at least one of a backgroundlayer, a video layer and a graphic layer, and wherein the digital signalprocessing module comprises a digital signal processor.
 2. The apparatusof claim 1, wherein the operation module disposes at least one of theplurality of logical screens on which the application included in therestored services is executed on the display screen.
 3. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the change of the set comprises one of a change of adefault screen on which the application is executed, a change ofcontexts of a service connected to the screen, a change of the displayscreen, a change of coordinates of a region where the logical screen ismapped in a region of the display screen, a change of a video port ofthe screen, a change of visibility of the screen, and a change of anorder of displaying the logical screen.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein plurality of logical screens comprises a Picture-in-Picturescreen.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of logicalscreens comprises a Picture-outside-Picture screen.
 6. An apparatus forproviding multiple screens, the apparatus comprising: a digital signalprocessing module which receives at least one of video component, audiocomponent and data component regarding data broadcasting services, andrestores a plurality of services based on the at least one of the videocomponent, the audio component and the data component; an operationmodule which generates the multiple screens including a display screenand a plurality of logical screens, for displaying the restored service,associates the restored services with the plurality of logical screensand associates the plurality of logical screens with the display screen;and a setting module which changes coordinates or a size of each screen,and provides an event announcing which attribute information regardingthe coordinates or the size of each screen has been changed, whereineach of the plurality of logical screens and the display screencomprises at least one of a background layer, a video layer and agraphic layer, and wherein the digital signal processing modulecomprises a digital signal processor.
 7. The apparatus of claim 6,wherein the plurality of logical screens comprises a Picture-in-Picturescreen.
 8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the plurality of logicalscreens comprises a Picture-outside-Picture screen.
 9. The apparatus ofclaim 6, wherein the operation module disposes at least one of theplurality of logical screen on which the application included in therestored services is executed on the display screen.
 10. The apparatusof claim 6, wherein the setting module changes coordinates of a regionwhere the logical screen is mapped in a region of the display screen anda size of the logical screen.
 11. An apparatus for providing multiplescreens, the apparatus comprising: a digital signal processing modulewhich receives at least one of video component, audio component and datacomponent regarding data broadcasting services, and restores a pluralityof services based on the at least one of the video component, the audiocomponent and the data component; a service processing module whichgenerates a plurality of logical screens for displaying the restoredservices and a display screen that the plurality of logical screens ismapped, associates the restored services with the plurality of logicalscreens and associates the plurality of logical screens with the displayscreen; and a setting module which changes an order of displaying theplurality of logical screens on the display screen, and provides anevent announcing which attribute information regarding the displayingorder of each logical screen has been changed, wherein each of theplurality of logical screens and the display screen comprises at leastone of a background layer, a video layer and a graphic layer, andwherein the digital signal processing module comprises a digital signalprocessor.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the plurality oflogical screens comprises a Picture-in-Picture screen.
 13. The apparatusof claim 11, wherein the plurality of logical screens comprises aPicture-outside-Picture screen.
 14. An apparatus for providing multiplescreens, the apparatus comprising: a digital signal processing modulewhich receives at least one of video component, audio component and datacomponent regarding data broadcasting services, and restores a pluralityof services based on the at least one of the video component, the audiocomponent and the data component; a service processing module whichgenerates a plurality of logical screens for displaying a service and adisplay screen that the plurality of logical screens is mapped,associates the restored services with the plurality of logical screensand associates the plurality of logical screens with the display screen;and a setting module which selects a disposing method from among aplurality of disposing methods and disposes the plurality of logicalscreens on the display screen according to the selected disposingmethod, and provides an event announcing which attribute informationregarding the disposing method of each logical screen has been changed,wherein each of the plurality of logical screens and the display screencomprises at least one of a background layer, a video layer and agraphic layer, and wherein the digital signal processing modulecomprises a digital signal processor.
 15. The apparatus of claim 14,wherein the disposing methods comprise: a first disposing method ofdisplaying a service from among the restored services on the displayscreen; a second disposing method in which the display screen accordingto the first disposing method exists with at least one overlappedscreen; a third disposing method in which the screen on which theservice is displayed corresponds to a logical screen that is mapped withan overall region of the display screen, the screen on which the serviceis displayed corresponds to at least one non-overlapped logical screenmapped with the display screen, and the screen on which the service isdisplayed does not correspond to the overlapped screen; a fourth methodin which the screen according to the third method exist with at leastone overlapped screen; a fifth method in which the screen on which theservice is displayed corresponds to at least two non-overlapped logicalscreens mapped with the overall region of the display screen but doesnot correspond to the overlapped screen; a sixth method in which thescreen according to the fifth method exists with at least one overlappedscreen; and a seventh method in which the screen on which the service isdisplayed is not included in the first to sixth methods.
 16. Theapparatus of claim 14, wherein the plurality of logical screenscomprises a Picture-in-Picture screen.
 17. The apparatus of claim 14,wherein the plurality of logical screens comprises aPicture-outside-Picture screen.
 18. The apparatus of claim 14, whereinthe setting module disposes the plurality of logical screens withreference to a right range of an application included in the service.19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the disposing method is selectedby the application included in the restored services or by a user. 20.An apparatus for providing multiple screens, the apparatus comprising: adigital signal processing module which receives at least one of videocomponent, audio component and data component regarding databroadcasting services, and restores a plurality of services based on theat least one of the video component, the audio component and the datacomponent; an operation module which generates the multiple screensincluding a plurality of logical screens for displaying a service and adisplay screen that the plurality of logical screens is mapped,associates the restored services with the plurality of logical screensand associates the plurality of logical screens with the display screen;and a setting module which restricts execution of an applicationincluded in the restored service on the multiple screens by ignoring asignal indicating that the application may be performed, wherein each ofthe plurality of logical screens and the display screen comprises atleast one of a background layer, a video layer and a graphic layer, andwherein the digital signal processing module comprises a digital signalprocessor.
 21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the plurality oflogical screens comprises a Picture-in-Picture screen.
 22. The apparatusof claim 20, wherein the plurality of logical screens comprises aPicture-outside-Picture screen.
 23. The apparatus of claim 20, whereinthe setting module restricts the execution of the application includedin a service from among the restored services on a screen from among themultiple screens regardless of whether a signal for indicating that theapplication can be executed on the screen is included in the service.24. A method of providing multiple screens, the method comprising:receiving at least one of video component, audio component and datacomponent regarding data broadcasting services; restoring a plurality ofservices based on the at least one of the video component, the audiocomponent and the data component; generating the multiple screensincluding a display screen and a plurality of logical screens, fordisplaying the restored services; associating the restored services withthe plurality of logical screens; associating the plurality of logicalscreens with the display screen; sensing a change of set of attributeinformation of each screen based on association of the restored servicesand the multiple screens; and providing an event announcing whichattribute information regarding the attribute information of each screenhas been changed, wherein each of the plurality of logical screens andthe display screen comprises at least one of a background layer, a videolayer and a graphic layer.
 25. The method of claim 24 further comprisingdisposing at least one of the plurality of logical screens on which theapplication included in the restored services is executed on the displayscreen.
 26. The method of claim 24, wherein the change of the setcomprises one of a change of a default screen on which the applicationis executed, a change of contexts of a service connected to the screen,a change of the display screen, a change of coordinates of a regionwhere the logical screen is mapped in a region of the display screen, achange of a video port of the screen, a change of visibility of thescreen, and a change of an order of displaying the logical screen. 27.The method of claim 24, wherein the plurality of logical screenscomprises a Picture-in-Picture screen.
 28. The method of claim 24,wherein the plurality of logical screens comprises aPicture-outside-Picture screen.
 29. A method of providing multiplescreens, the method comprising: receiving at least one of videocomponent, audio component and data component regarding databroadcasting services; restoring a plurality of services based on the atleast one of the video component, the audio component and the datacomponent; generating the multiple screens including a display screenand a plurality of logical screens, for displaying the restoredservices; associating the restored services with the plurality oflogical screens; associating the plurality of logical screens with thedisplay screen; changing coordinates or a size of the screen; andproviding an event announcing which attribute information regarding thecoordinates or the size of the screen has been changed, wherein each ofthe plurality of logical screens and the display screen comprises atleast one of a background layer, a video layer and a graphic layer. 30.The method of claim 29, wherein the plurality of logical screenscomprises a Picture-in-Picture screen.
 31. The method of claim 29,wherein the plurality of logical screens comprises aPicture-outside-Picture screen.
 32. The method of claim 29 furthercomprising disposing at least one of the plurality of logical screens onwhich the application is executed on the display screen.
 33. The methodof claim 29, wherein the changing of the coordinates or the size of thescreen comprises changing coordinates of a region where the logicalscreen is mapped in a region of the display screen and a size of thelogical screen.
 34. A method of providing multiple screens, the methodcomprising: receiving at least one of video component, audio componentand data component regarding data broadcasting services; restoring aplurality of services based on the at least one of the video component,the audio component and the data component; generating a plurality oflogical screens for displaying the restored services and a displayscreen to which the plurality of logical screens is mapped; associatingthe restored services with the plurality of logical screens; associatingthe plurality of logical screens with the display screen; changing anorder of displaying the plurality of logical screens on the displayscreen; and providing an event announcing which attribute informationregarding the displaying order of each logical screen has been changed.35. The method of claim 34, wherein the plurality of logical screenscomprises a Picture-in-Picture screen.
 36. The method of claim 34,wherein the plurality of logical screens comprises aPicture-outside-Picture screen.
 37. A method of providing multiplescreens, the method comprising: receiving at least one of videocomponent, audio component and data component regarding databroadcasting services; restoring a plurality of services based on the atleast one of the video component, the audio component and the datacomponent; generating a plurality of logical screens for displaying therestored services and a display screen to which the plurality of logicalscreen is mapped; associating the restored services with the pluralityof logical screens; associating the plurality of logical screens withthe display screen; selecting a disposing method from among a pluralityof disposing methods and disposing the plurality of logical screens onthe display screen according to the selected disposing method; andproviding an event announcing which attribute information regarding thedisposing method of each logical screen has been changed, wherein eachof the plurality of logical screens and the display screen comprises atleast one of a background layer, a video layer and a graphic layer. 38.The method of claim 37, wherein the disposing methods comprise: a firstdisposing method of displaying a service from among the restoredservices on the display screen; a second disposing method in which thedisplay screen according to the first disposing method exists with atleast one overlapped screen; a third disposing method in which thescreen on which the service is displayed corresponds to a logical screenthat is mapped with an overall region of the display screen, the screenon which the service is displayed corresponds to at least onenon-overlapped logical screen mapped with the display screen, and thescreen on which the service is displayed does not correspond to theoverlapped screen; a fourth method in which the screen according to thethird method exist with at least one overlapped screen; a fifth methodin which the screen on which the service is displayed corresponds to atleast two non-overlapped logical screens mapped with the overall regionof the display screen but does not correspond to the overlapped screen;a sixth method in which the screen according to the fifth method existswith at least one overlapped screen; and a seventh method in which thescreen on which the service is displayed is not included in the first tosixth methods.
 39. The method of claim 37, wherein the plurality oflogical screens comprises a Picture-in-Picture screen.
 40. The method ofclaim 37, wherein the plurality of logical screens comprises aPicture-outside-Picture screen.
 41. The method of claim 37, wherein thedisposing of the plurality of logical screens with reference to a rightrange of an application included in the service.
 42. The method of claim37, wherein the disposing method is selected by the application includedin the restored services or a user.
 43. A method of providing multiplescreens, the method comprising: receiving at least one of videocomponent, audio component and data component regarding databroadcasting services; restoring a plurality of services based on the atleast one of the video component, the audio component and the datacomponent; generating the multiple screens including a display screenand a plurality of logical screens, for displaying the restoredservices; associating the restored services with the plurality oflogical screens; associating the plurality of logical screens with thedisplay screen; and restricting execution of an application included inthe restored services on the multiple screens by ignoring a signalindicating that the application may be performed, wherein each of theplurality of logical screens and the display screen comprises at leastone of a background layer, a video layer and a graphic layer.
 44. Themethod of claim 43, wherein the plurality of logical screens comprises aPicture-in-Picture screen.
 45. The method of claim 43, wherein theplurality of logical screens comprises a Picture-outside-Picture screen.46. The method of claim 43, wherein the restricting the execution of theapplication restricts the execution of the application included in aservice from among the restored services on a screen from among themultiple screens regardless of whether a signal for indicating that theapplication can be executed on the screen is included in the service.47. A system comprising a plurality of interface objects to dynamicallyconfigure a plurality of screens represented as a plurality of screenobjects on a physical display device, wherein the system comprises: aprocessor configured to perform the functions of: a multiscreen contextmodule comprising attribute information for each of the plurality ofscreen objects; a multiscreen context event module in communication withthe multiscreen context module to prompt an event announcing whichattribute information for each screen object has been changed if achange to the attribute information occurs for the plurality of screenobjects; and a multiscreen listener module that receives selected eventsprompted by the multiscreen context event module that are associatedwith an application class, wherein the system, in communication with theinterface objects, receives at least one of video component, audiocomponent and data component regarding data broadcasting services;restores a plurality of service contexts based on the at least one ofthe video component, the audio component and the data component;generates the plurality of screens objects including a display screenobject and a plurality of logical screen objects; associates the servicecontexts with the plurality of logical screen objects; and associatesthe plurality of logical screen objects with the display screen object,and wherein each of the plurality of logical screen objects and thedisplay screen object comprises at least one of a background layer, avideo layer and a graphic layer.
 48. The system of claim 47, wherein themultiscreen context module determines whether the plurality of screenobjects become a logical screen or a display screen.
 49. The system ofclaim 47, further comprising: an application module that allow a user todynamically configure and manage a plurality of logical screens; and amulti screen manager module that receives commands from the applicationmodule to be executed through the multiscreen context module.
 50. Thesystem of claim 47, wherein in the multiscreen context event module, anevent is prompted if at least one of a change in basic HScreen of theapplication, a change of connected service context, a change ofconnected output HScreen, a change of a designated region in theconnected output HScreen, a change of connected video output port, achange of visibility of the screens, and a change of z-order of thescreens occurs.
 51. A system comprising: a processor configured toperform the functions of a setting module for configuring a plurality ofscreens on a physical display device, wherein the setting modulerestricts execution of a predetermined application included in theservice on the screen, and performs: (i) changing coordinates and sizeof each of the screens, (ii) changing the order of displaying thescreens on the physical display device, (iii) extracting a screendisposing method of a currently activated screen, (iv) restrictingexecution of an application on the screens by ignoring a signalindicating that the application may be performed, and (v) providing andreceiving an event announcing which attribute information of each of thescreens has been changed, wherein the attribute information of each ofthe screens includes at least one of the coordinates and the size ofeach of the screens, the order of displaying the screens on the physicaldisplay device, the screen disposing method of a currently activatedscreen.
 52. The system of claim 51, wherein the setting module senses achange in the plurality of screens.